Tuesday, 31 July 2012

After a
several months fighting the rat men had not broken through the underways to
Lord Brouhaha’s hold, Hullabaloo. Now reports were coming in of an over land
force heading into the human farmland essential for the holds existence. The
threat was serious, by all accounts the humans had already run and Hullabaloo,
used to being supplied from above in times of underway war had not stock piled
food. That the vile, cunning ratmen may be playing a rouse was also a possibility.

Lord
Brouhaha had resolved to take a small force of doughty warriors, crossbow men
and Agnetha and Anni-Frid his two dwarf-packed bolt throwers. The girls were
well known for a succession of popular killer hits. He would then meet up with
the Dragon Clan, obsessed with fire and black powder these dwarven gun nuts
guarded the main route from the low lands to the upper passes of Hullabaloo. Brouhaha
could rely on Fred Martini to bring along at least a unit of his red coated
clans men, some armed with hand guns and of course his cannon.

To ensure
no ambush was being set Bruhaha would send one of his gyrocopters ahead, any
thing suspicious and the pilot Raoul Halfner would report back.

Lore master
Daniels approached; Bruhaha liked him but not a lot. It was hard to like the
smug ginger midget particularly after he had taken to spending most of his time
locked away with that odd looking succubus he found so alluring, the lovely D’bee
he called her. The very thought sent shivers down Lord Brouhahas spine. “Hoo,
hoo”, Daniels intoned in his chirpy little voice. “you can rely on me my lord,
and the lovely D’bee, hoo hoo.”

“No”, replied
Brouhaha, ”I command you to come but that devil of yours stays here, I’ll need
your mind on the job”

“Oh” moped
small Daniels, “now that’s tragic.”

Within
hours the expeditionary force was ready to leave, the march would last but two
days if no manling like rests were taken. Outside the gates of Hullabaloo a
band of oath breakers waited. With their red hair, lack of armour and blue tattoos
the oath breaking troll slayers were a welcome if ill disciplined addition to
the force.

“We, the Ginger
Nuts will company you.” Shouted the apparent leader of the band.

Lord Brouhaha
nodded his consent.

“Hoho what
a peculiar name”, chirped Small Daniels

“Not
really,” Said the head slayer. “We are all ginger and we are all nuts.”

“Very good.”
Replied Brouhaha.

“That is
not all my Lord. We also all enjoy the round flat twice backed cakes containing
ginger that the lowland farmers bake so well.”

“Very good.”
Replied Brouhaha.

“And you
will also find that each and every one of us has an enormous pair of….”

“I said, very
good.” Brouhaha loudly and hastily replied.

Halfner
flew his steam powered gyrocopterover the lowlands scanning the horizon for any
sign of the ratmen. “One more mile”, he thought to himself just as he spotted on
the horizon the thin line that clearly showed the presence of a vermin army
they were moving fast. There was no time to go back, it had already been
decided that “no news is good news”, but to be sure Lord Brouhaha was clear Halfner
dropped one of his lit bombs over the side. The resulting explosion could
surely be heard for miles.

The rat men
extended in large blocks across the human lands enclosed by the spurs of the
mountain. To the left most flank warriors marched accompanied by loathsome rat ogres.
An enormous unit containing several banners held the centre of the line with
yet more rat ogres. Various ratman machines of destruction milled about what
must be the generals unit.

A wood broke the ratmens line but a further unit of
warriors advanced on the far side of it accompanied by a skirmishing unit of
ratman scouts and a trailing unit of reluctant slaves. The sneaky rat warlord
had advance marched his whole army over night!

On a hill to the rear the skaven
set up their loathsome two man cannon. Halfner would need to fly clear of them.

Lord Brouhaha
was at least able to view the ratman dispositions before committing his own
forces. A refused flank would serve well he concluded. Martini’s thunderers and
the gyrocopter would hold the refused flank.

On his own
left Agnetha and Anni-Frid would set up to launch their spite into the
advancing Murine swarm. To protect them, and keep them away from his own
ordered lines he placed the Ginger Nuts.

The center
was held by his own warriors and missile troops along with the ever annoying butu
hopefully useful Small Daniels. Martini’s clansmen would also be in the center
but able to redeploy to the right flank in case it proved not to hold. The center was also steadied by the presence of Roaring Mug Mzartini’s Cannon. The
troops were well deployed. In the coming hours they would show their worth.

Wednesday, 25 July 2012

Why Vern? I
hear you cry. Do you really need me to tell you? Any way here he is being ridden
by his master Hagedis Leatherwing, Wyvern master and Stuntie crumper, trusted
Lieutenant of Ashcan the Great. Before joining the horde most reports placed
him in the northern mountains feasting with his mount on Dwarven sheep and Dwarven
flesh.

We see him
here making several attempts to land Vern in the rocky landscape of the northern
passes. No doubt on some scouting mission during the hordes descent to the low
lands, known as Ashcans great passage. Hagedis was always the leading thrust in
Ashcans great passage.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

OK I know
its possible to do these things with say a digital camera and a lap top but
with the iPad it is just easier. And it would be quite expensive to buy one
just for gaming, but lets say you’ve bought one here are the top 5 things that
makes the iPad a great toy for an analogue war-gamer:

1)1) PDF rules. If you have your favorite
rules set in pdf format it is simplicity itself to flick to the pages you need.
Even easier if you float it. Nine times out of ten you would get to the rule
quicker on float than flicking through the paper rule set.

2)2) iPad formatted editions. Many makers
of rules such as Too Fat Lardies and Ganesha Games are producing rule sets with
links in specifically for the iPad.

3)3) Note taking. Want to write out your
spell lists and army lists, forget countless sheets of paper cluttering the
place up put it on your iPad notes.

Saturday, 21 July 2012

Our intrepid war corespondent Kay Taydee reports from her imbedded position on the dwarf front line. Casualties are low and the Dwarven forces are in high spirits as the vile ramen approach but boy are they fast.
A quick post mid game from iPad meaning I can only use HTML so sorry for wired size pictures.

Well I have business in my old home town today and tomorrow and so shall be staying the night at my Brothers. Perfect excuse for a game of Oldhammer 3rd. My brother has collected almost as many miniatures as me over the years but unlike me way over half of them are Skaven, the man is rat obsessed.

Now with games against your brother competition is the order of he day so we tend not to let on what armies we are taking. I'm fairly certain I'll be facing Skaven though, chaos and high elves are an outside chance.

Me I'm taking Dwarves and here is the list. Not very narrative at the moment but we'll flesh it out before game commences. It's also light on warriors but isn't that how we roll round here? Thanks for the army builder files Dreamfish.

Friday, 20 July 2012

So I got my old hammer T-shirt the other day. The wife is a sleep on the sofa so couldn't get here to take a photo of me the idiot I got to pose in it so here is a quick ipad self portrait snap of said idiot.

If you haven't got one yet why not? You could look as cool as me this idiot! I thought black was supossed to be slimming, Zhu! I want my money back.......

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

OK to follow on from my RT Orks post here are a few space wombles. These are really old paints on even older minis, a few lead but almost all the classic beaky marines from what really was a ground breaking early plastic set.

I've only taken photos of one squad, you've seen one grey marine you've seen them all, but there are several tactical squads and a couple of all lazcannon devastator squads in the army. I never really named these guys, every chapter name i came up with just didn't seam to work, Emperor's Swords, Emperor's knights, Grey Swords.. they all just didn't cut it. A massive 10 worthless points for anyone coming up with a name I really like, salient points, they are grey and have a sword emblem on the shoulder pad.

Kill!

Whirlwind conversion.

This is how dreadnoughts actually look.

Not sure where the second multi melta has gone.

The vehicles are particularly ropey paints but I love em not quite to pieces. Not sure why Space marines always write, "Kill!", on their tanks, probably because it is cool. I have some bikes knocking about somewhere and five of the riding lizards that I've yet to do anything with.

Saturday, 14 July 2012

Really sorry Zhu, your work has sort of been adopted but we can always look elsewhere.

OK while we have momentum lets keep running. I mentioned a Fanzine and there was some general agreement this would be pretty cool. I'm not stupid I know a fanzine could well be an awful lot of work but in an effort to at least give it a go I'd like to suggest some ideas. Oh but not before apologising to Zhu for abusing his cool Oldhammer logo. Sorry Zhu I hope you forgive the liberty.

First to consider the look. Part of me thinks a nice B&W amateur look is where this should go. A bigger part thinks if it had a passing resemblance to the way an old once beloved gaming mag used to look then that would hit all the right buttons.

Next I'll run through a few ideas that would be great to include in the fanzine in no particular order.

Every great mag starts somewhere.

An 'evy Metal section. Showcase different Oldhammerers best minis. If we could persuade someone with loads of talent like Dave King (who has already done a few 'eavy Metal homages) to be a resident Blanche or McVey for us so much the better.

An introduction to the rules. A good look at 3rd and 2nd for the uninitiated.

Scenarios. Thantsants has already proposed some generic scenarios, it would be great to have these as part of the fanzine. Expand on as an example introductory scenario even?

Counters for the scenario just like they used to provide. That way anyone new with access to the rules but no miniatures can play.

New Oldhammer. Tips on playing the old way with new games. Reviews of modern games that capture the spirit of oldhammer.

Oldhammer reviews. Reviews of those expensive or rare, usually both, collectors items. Are they worth it? What should you expect to pay?

Interviews with those in the, "scene", about their involvement and passion.

A cartoon, why not?

Decent art work. We can't rip off old WD art we need our own.

Fighting fantasy corner. Do we branch out and cover other old school things and broaden appeal or stay focused?

WHFRP corner?

Heroquest corner?

Pipe dream time: Interviews with those who were there? Hero Hammers.

Well if anyone has any ideas, plans, wants to be involved let me know.

Friday, 13 July 2012

I'm adding all Oldhammer links to the Oldhammer blog. If you site or blog ought to be on the list give me a prod, if it has any oldhammer credentials I'll put the link up. I already know I'm missing a fair few, rest assured I just haven't got round to it yet.

OK loads of ideas buzzing about, loads of energy. Perhaps not loads of focus yet. Always one to just get on with it I have started the following blog, http://old-hammer.blogspot.co.uk/ that I'm happy to give authorship to anyone with a reason to post and admin rights to a load of us too. Please express an intrest here and I'll send an invite to join as author out, I'll need your blogger email to do it but you can trust me honest.

The idea isn't to supplant our own blogs just to collate anything about group oldhammer activities in one place, arranging a meeting, running a competion and so on.

The design is also up for grabs don't be put off by my current poor effort.

Wednesday, 11 July 2012

No I don’t
think so, a nascent community at best. Currently we compare each others PJs on
old lead, show off our old lead, get nostalgic about old games and ways of
playing and play a very few old games.

I truly don’t
think that makes us a movement and certainly not unique in the world of old
warhammer. That doesn’t mean movement towards a movmentdom is without merit or
beyond happening.

A movement
almost literally by definition requires momentum. Something needs to be
happening preferably a target or two to aim towards. So here is a vague list of
things I’ve been considering for a while:

1)A meeting, to be called obviously
Oldhammer Contact. Arranging a hall for a day and a time is no problem at all
but with so few of us, spaced far apart, sometimes really far apart and mainly
all being dads of young kids who would come? A pipe dream perhaps but laudable.

2)A Fanzine, but I hear you type, “that’s
what our blogs are for no?” Well, no, imagine
a couple of sides of A4 with say a scenario, painting tips, collecting tips, clarification
or even reinterpretations of rules and a few illustrations from our own fair
hands, I know I could knock one or two out (boom, boom). Now imagine it printed
off and sitting with your rule collection all B&W and amateur. Something new
something created, momentum.

3)A competition. This one is very
doable I have my own plans on this and it may even be backed up by something
interesting from my own lead swaps pile as a prize. Watch this space….

4)Miniatures, White knight has done
it, Clam has done it. Obviously these minis are for their own use but what is
to stop any one of us doing the same with that long coveted but missing from
the back catalog item. Mmmmm Jess like
wood-elf falconers.

5)Evangelism, spread the word. Not
sure this is the best idea, too much old school competition for lead as it is.

Monday, 9 July 2012

OK so this is really number 1 mini Erny dressed up as Thor (as he requested) for his preschool "Graduation". I figured with so much gamer dad talk on the bloggs recently no body would mind the indulgence. Golden Heroes and Marvel superheros RPG are both very retro though!